memory_alphafandomcom-20200223-history
Scorpion (episode)
Upon entering Borg space, Voyager encounters an alien race even more powerful than the Borg and bent on destroying all life in the galaxy, thus forcing Captain Janeway to enter into an alliance with the Borg in order to defeat them. (Season Finale) Summary Teaser In a region of space, two Borg cubes are seen. They are advancing on their next intended targets for assimilation. Their hail is cut off abruptly as energy beams lash out at the cubes which are instantly destroyed. Act One On one of 's holodecks, Captain Kathryn Janeway is running her Leonardo Da Vinci simulation. As she begins the simulation, she receives an urgent hail from Commander Chakotay who urges her to go to engineering to take a look at something. In engineering, Chakotay and Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres explain that the long-range probe they sent out months ago has stopped transmitting. B'Elanna, however, was able to catch the last few seconds of telemetry, which shows a Borg drone's face staring into the viewscreen. Chakotay remarks that they have reached Borg space. Janeway immediately calls a meeting of the senior staff and explains that it is unknown how many Borg vessels are out there but that their space appears to be vast, including thousands of solar systems - all Borg. They are no doubt entering the heart of their territory and, unfortunately, there seems to be no way around it, even though she believes that there may be a way through it. Chakotay explains that before the probe was disabled, it picked up a narrow corridor of space devoid of Borg activity - which they nicknamed the Northwest Passage. Navigating through it, however, may prove complicated as the passage is filled with intense gravimetric distortions probably caused by a string of quantum singularities. But, they have no choice but to go through it. Janeway asks them about readiness. Ensign Kim reports that sensors have been remodulated to check round the clock for Borg transwarp activity. The Doctor reports that he extensively scanned the Borg drone corpse they had found months ago and that he is close to successfully producing a medical defense. Neelix has been working on ways to extend their supplies and replicator rations as they will certainly not be able to replenish supplies in Borg space. Torres reports that warp propulsion is operating at optimum. Janeway voices her faith in all of them. All over the ship, preparations are finalized. In engineering, the warp drive is checked yet again. Tuvok goes through weapons checks with his security officers. Chakotay and Kim review planned tactical options in case the Borg invade the ship. . While The Doctor and Kes examine the Borg drone corpse, Kes suddenly experiences a vivid vision of dismembered Borg drone corpses, piled up on one another. She has no idea what this means but it disturbs her greatly and she tells The Doctor about it. She experiences these and other frightening visions for the next two hours; visions of dead drones and Voyager s destruction. Tuvok, who is Kes' mentor in honing her telepathic abilities, is informed. While he discusses Kes' predicament with Janeway and Chakotay on the bridge, the ship begins to tremble. Kim reports that long-range sensors report transwarp signatures closing from behind. However subspace turbulence prevents them from creating a stable warp field and before they know it, they are surrounded by 15 Borg vessels with 2.5 light years and closing. In visual range, the enormous vessels are seen rapidly approaching. But much to everyone's surprise, they do not attack but merely race past Voyager. One cube slows and scans them, then speeds up to rejoin the others. They soon pass beyond the sensors' visual range, though Kim still has them on the long range sensors. Subspace turbulence dies down. At a complete loss but extremely thankful, Janeway orders resumption of warp. Later, Janeway reviews data of all Federation vessel-encounters with the Borg in her ready room. She explains to Chakotay that she has been seeking useful information on the Borg from the logs of other Starfleet commanders but has gotten none. She is clueless as what to do and feels rather alone as the commander of a ship trapped in the Delta Quadrant and at the mercy of such a hostile species. Chatokay gently assures her that he and everyone else will support her and that she is not alone. Janeway says that she cannot imagine a day without him - which is ironic because just a few years ago, she didn't even know his name. While they are talking, Tuvok hails her to the bridge. There, he and Kim report that the Borg cubes have suddenly stopped. The reason cannot be detected. Janeway orders Paris to take them to the coordinates. There they find that every one of the fifteen cubes has been destroyed - with only a few life signs. Tuvok detects two residual weapon's signatures in the debris: one Borg and the other of unknown origin. They wonder in astonishment who could bring such devastation to the Borg. Act Two Janeway, Chakotay and the officers on the bridge simply cannot believe what they are seeing. The idea of someone more powerful than the Borg seems rather unbelievable. Kim thinks they might have found an ally but Chakotay warns to not jump to conclusions. While scanning the vicinity for other vessels they detect certain bio readings on one of the Borg ships. They confirm that it is organic but do not receive a response when they send out a standard greeting. They try to beam it away from the ship, but cannot get a lock on it and a tractor beam also doesn't seem to have an effect. They realize that whatever that thing is attached to the Borg cube, it is impervious to their technology. Janeway order Chakotay to lead an away team to the cube to take a short-range scan of this biomass. Tuvok and Harry join Chakotay on the away team and beam aboard the cube. As they look around, they find but dead drones scattered amidst a wreck. The officers pick their way through the damage. They follow the readings on their tricorders, moving steadily toward the object attached to the cube's hull. As they move on, they find a pile of dismembered Borg corpses reminiscent of the visions Kes had earlier on. They continue forward to the object and find that it has created a gaping hole in the cube's hull and fused onto it. Scans reveal it to be a ship - or more precisely, an organic based vessel. In Voyager s sickbay, Kes is carrying a tray when she is suddenly overwhelmed by visions of Kim screaming in abject agony. She drops the tray and collapses - frantically warning that the away team is in grave danger and that they need to leave the cube immediately. The Doctor hails Janeway and tells her about Kes' warning. On the cube, Kim calls the other two officers to his position as he has detected something biological in the vicinity and which does not appear to be Borg. Just then Janeway hails and tells them to prepare for immediate return to Voyager. However Torres has a hard time getting a lock on them because of bioelectric interference from the lifeform. She attempts to get a lock on the minerals in their bone tissue to get them back. On the cube, the unknown life form suddenly tears through a wall and enters the corridor. Immediately it attacks nearby drones, swiping them before turning to Kim and attacking him. Harry collapses, screaming in excruciating pain. The creature moves to finish him but just then Voyager beams the away team back onboard. On the bridge, Paris reports that the alien ship is detaching and powering up, seeming to be readying to fire a weapon. Kes, who is also there on the bridge, experiences another vision of the pilot on that bio-ship communicating with her. Janeway orders Paris to take them out of the area at maximum warp. Kes, full of alarm, tells Janeway that it is not the Borg that they should be worried about but this new species. She tells Janeway that the creature told him that "The weak will perish." Act Three As Voyager continues heading for the Northwest Passage, now only one day away, Janeway enters sickbay and sees the horrific sight of Kim lying on a bio-bed, paralyzed yet obviously in agony. The front of his uniform is ripped, showing wounds from his attacker's claws. His face, like the face of the disfigured drone on the cube, is horribly deformed. The Doctor tells her that the few alien cells left in the wound the creature had given him are now throughout his entire body. Janeway says he appears as if he is transforming but the Doctor corrects her. The alien cells are not transforming his cells but consuming them. He is literally being eaten alive, from the inside out. Janeway is horrified to see that he is still conscious. The Doctor frustratedly tells her that he has tried to anesthetize him but it simply does not work; the alien cells neutralize the anesthetic immediately. He shows her a scan of the alien DNA. He tells her it is over 100 times denser than Human DNA. Any chemical or foreign body, living or non-living, which penetrates the cell membrane, is instantly destroyed. Janeway realizes an important fact: "any foreign body" includes Borg nanoprobes; this is why the Borg cannot assimilate these creatures. But The Doctor says he may have found a way to use Borg nanoprobes to treat Kim. He has hacked into one from the dead drone and reprogrammed it so that the alien cells will not detect it as a foreign body. Thus it can destroy the alien DNA. It will then destroy itself so as not to assimilate the tissue it is in. But it will take several days to reprogram enough nanoprobes to destroy the alien cells in Kim's body and he has no idea if Kim will last that long. Janeway quietly urges Kim to continue fighting. Kim’s only response, the only one he can give, is a single tear. On the bridge, Tuvok and Torres show Chakotay a part of the tactical data Kim had retrieved from the cube. According to it, the aliens, designated by the Borg as Species 8472, have engaged the Borg twelve times in the last five months and each time the outcome has been the same as what they saw remaining of the fifteen cubes: the Borg were completely destroyed. The Borg are unable to adapt to them or come up with any kind of defense. The Borg only gain knowledge of a species by assimilating members of that species. Thus if they cannot assimilate them, they cannot understand or adapt to them. Chakotay asks if they know where the aliens are coming from. They do and it is the worst possible news. They pull up a visual and show him. He inhales sharply at what he sees, and tells them to get the captain. A grim-faced Janeway is seen watching the visual as it shows hundreds of the aliens' ships, streaming forth from the quantum singularities in the Northwest Passage. The reason why the area is totally devoid of Borg is now obvious. Kes tells her that they have been communicating with her further. Their new messages are even more frightening than the first. They are from another realm where only they live; there are no other lifeforms there. Their campaign against the Borg is only the beginning. They keep repeating that "The weak will perish". It is an invasion and they intend to destroy every living thing in the entire Milky Way. Janeway immediately orders Paris to come about and return to a position five light years away from the Passage, then come to an all stop. She and Chakotay go to her ready room. In her ready room, Janeway and Chakotay discuss their next move. The Northwest Passage is now out of the question, entering would mean certain death. So the only options they have now are to either take their chances crossing Borg space outside the Passage and "face the hive", or not go in at all and remain in the Delta Quadrant indefinitely. Janeway is inclined to take the first option, she simply cannot bring herself to give up or to tell the crew to do so. Chakotay tries to inject some optimism, saying that they may yet find another way home. He advises her to get some rest and leaves her to ponder her next decision. She tries to relax via her Da Vinci holodeck simulation but the decision she must make weighs too heavily on her mind. But then, in a flash of inspiration, a possible solution presents itself. She immediately calls a meeting with the senior staff. Act Four In the briefing room, Janeway outlines her plan: a deal with the Borg, against their enemy. The officers are incredulous. She outlines the rationale: Voyager has the solution the Borg need to defeat Species 8472, The Doctor's reprogrammed nanoprobes. These could be made into a biological weapon against the species. If the Borg were to simply assimilate Voyager for the technical data to create the weapon themselves they would be out of luck. The Doctor would be the only one to have the information, he would delete himself and it as well. The Borg are being exterminated and they would not sacrifice this chance to save themselves in order to assimilate one ship and its crew. The Doctor points out that the research is highly experimental; he is not even sure it will work on Kim. Janeway sees this as their only chance and is confident it will work. She orders Paris to find the nearest assimilated system and set a course for it and dismisses the meeting. During the meeting, however, Chakotay is quiet. He remains behind after the others have left and, using a parable about a scorpion and a fox, tells her what he thinks: it is suicide. The discussion becomes a heated argument. He outlines the problems to her. First, they have no guarantee that the Borg will keep their hands off them after they get the information. Secondly, they would be giving an advantage to a race guilty of murdering billions, helping them to carry out the horrific abomination of assimilation on yet another species. "It's wrong!" he adamantly tells her. She responds that they may be doing the galaxy a favor, given the threat the species represents, a threat much greater than the Borg. She tells him her mind is made up and asks him pointedly if she has his support. He responds that as her First Officer, she will have his obedience but not his support for this plan. She dismisses him sadly but her resolve is unshaken. Voyager arrives at an assimilated system. Several Borg cubes are in the area. Immediately one of the enormous vessels closes on them. The usual chilling hail from the Collective, informing them of their intended fate of being assimilated, comes through and the cube seizes them in a tractor beam. Janeway responds that they have tactical information about Species 8472 and offers to negotiate for it. The Collective refuses. Janeway has Torres transmit to it a sample of the research, showing the 8472 cells being destroyed by the Borg nanoprobes. She tells it that this is a sample of the data and threatens to destroy it if the Collective does not listen to what she has to say. There is a long pause. She presses the point, telling the Collective that she knows it is being destroyed. This information can save it. She again offers to negotiate but as she speaks, she is transported to the cube. Onboard the cube she finds herself on a catwalk spanning the vast interior of the vessel. The Collective instructs her to state her demands. She states that there is only one demand: safe passage through Borg space in exchange for the data. She will give them the data once they are safely through and out the other side, untouched and unassimilated. The Collective finds this unacceptable as Borg space is vast and the data is needed now. She refuses, telling them that the data is their only guarantee against assimilation. The Collective will only get it once Voyager is safely beyond Borg space. Silence ensues as the Collective considers. It instructs her to state her proposal. Her idea is for them to work together as Voyager traverses Borg space to craft a bio-weapon using the data. She is in the middle of outlining this when the cube is violently shaken. An 8472 ship is attacking the cube. On Voyager s bridge, Tuvok informs Chakotay that a quantum singularity has opened 20,000 kilometers away and more of the ships are coming through behind this one. The cube's shields are weakening but not enough to beam Janeway back. Nine of the bio-ships are seen. They converge in a star pattern, eight forming a ring around one central ship. They head toward the assimilated planet. The eight in the ring fire on the one in the center which collects the energy and channels it into one devastatingly powerful beam directed at the planet. The planet glows red, fireballs erupt on its surface and then it explodes, totally obliterated. All the Borg cubes in the vicinity are destroyed, except for the one holding Voyager. The cube is seen hurtling away at high warp, just ahead of the explosion, Voyager still held firmly in its tractor beam. [[Scorpion, Part II|''TO BE CONTINUED...]] Memorable Quotes "''We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is fu..." : - Borg, before being destroyed by Species 8472 - First line of the episode. "In their collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy, driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption, beyond reason." : - Captain Jean-Luc Picard, log entry read by Captain Janeway "There's a story I heard as a child, a parable, and I never forgot it. A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly, he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river. The fox said 'No, if I do that you'll sting me, and I'll drown.' The scorpion assured him, 'If I did that, we'd both drown.' So the fox thought about it, and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back, and the fox began to swim, but half way across the river the scorpion stung him. As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, 'Why did you do that? Now you'll drown too.' 'I couldn't help it,' said the scorpion, 'it's my nature'." : - Chakotay, to Janeway as he objects to her plan to ally with the Borg "There are times, Katharina, when I find myself transfixed by a shadow on the wall, or the splashing of water against a stone. I stare at it, the hours pass, the world around me drops away... Replaced by worlds being created and destroyed by my imagination." :- Leonardo da Vinci (holodeck) "Think good thoughts." : - Janeway, while Voyager is being scanned by the Borg. "There's a path before me... the only way home. And on either side, mortal enemies bent on destroying each other. If I attempt to pass through them... I'll be destroyed as well. But if I turn around... that would end all hope of ever getting home." : - Janeway, to Da Vinci on the Holodeck "What if I made an appeal... to the Devil?" : - Janeway, to Da Vinci hologram as she considers an alliance with the Borg "The weak will perish!" : - Species 8472, as stated by Kes from one of her telepathic encounters Background Information * "Scorpion" gets its name from the parable Chakotay shares with Janeway after briefing the crew on her plan to form a temporary alliance with the Borg. It is most commonly known as , but Chakotay's version substitutes a fox for the frog. * This episode marks the final appearance of Jennifer Lien (Kes) as a regular cast member. * The interior Borg cube matte shot in the final scene was recycled from , with the bridge and Janeway superimposed over it. * This is the first appearance of John Rhys-Davies as Leonardo Da Vinci. Kate Mulgrew was very happy about her scenes with him: "I think that Janeway's one flaw as a scientist was an inability to exercise her imagination sometimes as an artist. So who would she then appeal to who could help her in both regards? Well, da Vinci, who was both a scientist and an artist. So, really she was going to him for lessons in philosophy - to teach her the heart of an artist while honing the brain of a scientist. And he did indeed, in the end, give her the greatest gift of all, which was emotional flight and freedom." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) * The robot that Leonardo Da Vinci is working on in Captain Janeway's holodeck program of his workshop is based on a real work that Leonardo created. Although the final drawings of the robot are lost (if they ever existed), preliminary sketches have been input into computer simulations that confirms that they were indeed meant to be a mechanical man. While the sketches were known of, it was not until the 1950s that a professor from the University of California realized what they were meant to be. For more information, please see or Lodestar's Lair. * Janeway points out to Leonardo: "Someone once said... all invention is but an extension of the body of man...". This "someone" is , popular for his studies in media theory. One of his theses is that all media are just extensions of our Human body. For example a radio is an extension of the ear, binoculars an extension of our eyes. This theory directly relates to the character of the Borg. * The idea for "Scorpion" was a last minute idea and written in a week. Originally was going to be the finale, but with the choice made to shake up the cast in season 4, this episode was the result. (Delta Quadrant) * This episode has one of the shortest teasers in Star Trek, at just under twenty seconds and with only a single (unfinished) line of dialogue spoken by the Borg. * This episode marks the beginning of the development of tension in the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay, which culminates in Chakotay considering mutiny in the season 6 premiere . * This episode marks the third time in Star Trek that an end-of-season cliffhanger story had revolved around the Borg - the previous occasions being and . Coincidentally, the former of those two episodes had bridged TNG's third and fourth seasons, just as bridges the equivalent seasons of VOY. * The pile of dismembered Borg seen on the disabled cube was constructed from Playmates Toys action figures. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.13, *In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: Voyager - Movies: Volume 2 (with "Year of Hell"), catalog number VHR 5072, *As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection *As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Borg collection Links and references Starring *Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway Also starring *Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay *Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres *Jennifer Lien as Kes *Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris *Ethan Phillips as Neelix *Robert Picardo as The Doctor *Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok *Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim Guest star *John Rhys-Davies as Leonardo da Vinci Uncredited co-stars * Patrick Barnitt as a Borg Drone * Jeff Cadiente as a stunt Borg Drone * Sue Henley as Brooks * Tom Morga as a stunt Borg Drone * Louis Ortiz as Culhane * Chris Reed as a Borg Drone * John Tampoya as a Borg Drone Stunt double * Peter Lai as the stunt double for Garrett Wang References Achilles; Amasov; assimilation tubule; Battle of Wolf 359; bioship; Borg Collective; Borg cube; Breen; bronzetto; cardinal; electrodynamic fluid; ''Endeavour'', USS; ''Enterprise''-D, USS; fluidic space; goose grease; gravimetric distortions; Hickman; Hephaestus; Hercules; horse; Interdimensional rift; monk; nanoprobe; "Northwest Passage"; oak; Jean-Luc Picard; polaron beam; Q; Santa Croce; scudi; skeletal lock; Species 8472; Species 8472 bioship; starling; Tale of the Scorpion; telepathy; transwarp; Wolf 359 |next= }} cs:Scorpion (epizoda) de:Skorpion, Teil I es:Scorpion, Part I fr:Scorpion, Part I nl:Scorpion, Deel I Category:VOY episodes